Case #33: The Black Sox-Baseball's Most Notorious Scandal
Noir Factory Podcast
English - July 14, 2017 04:45 - 23 minutes - 32.6 MB - ★★★★★ - 173 ratingsBooks Arts History author bogart capone clue crime crimes evil film hammett history Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Case #33: The Black Sox
I'm forever blowing ballgames,
pretty ballgames in the air.
I come from Chi, I hardly try,
just go to bat and fade and die.
Fortune's coming my way,
that's why I don't care.
I'm forever blowing ballgames,
and the gamblers treat us fair.
-Ring Lardner
You could say that it started with Charlie Comiskey, because a lot of things started with Charlie Comiskey in Chicago in 1919. Comiskey owned the Chicago White Sox, a serious contender in any year, and he enjoyed the reputation as a tightwad and a fierce negotiator.
I want to go on record by saying that although Comiskey fostered the reputation as a hard-guy and a tightwad, the payroll of the Chicago White Sox was one of the best in the league. The team was filled with solid players and had two bona fide stars on its roster; outfielder Joe Jackson and third baseman Buck Weaver. They each made over $6000 a year in 1919 and a lot of the other name players on the team made around half that. And that was about what they would have made on any other roster in the Bigs, so while money was a factor in the Black Sox Scandal, it wasn't the only factor.